The blades of the helicopter slashed the air as the chopper set down. With one backward glance, Sophie slipped into the back door of her parents’ house and closed it behind her. She realized she was trembling. She wanted so badly to see Clay again but when he left, the pain would be fresh and new. The thought of his wonderful scent, those green eyes and easy smile, the warmth and gentleness of his strong hands, made her breathing become shallow. It would take her months to get over that yearning, if not years. She tried to be strong. But her ability to resist him was weak.
Her mother was in the kitchen, cleaning up after their supper. When Sophie had asked to help she was told no, to just relax, watch TV or maybe go outside and enjoy the remains of the day. Now her mom’s eyes were glued to the small window over the kitchen sink, as she no doubt watched the helicopter land.
“Is that Clay?” she apparently couldn’t refrain from asking.
“That would be my guess,” Sophie replied. How many people did they know who would fly in and land the helicopter in the backyard like that?
“Aren’t you going out to welcome him?”
Sophie couldn’t hold back a snort. “If he wants to talk to me, he obviously knows where I live.”
Casually, Sophie walked into the empty living room. “Where are Susan and Dad?” It was amazing how calm she could sound when her heart was beating out of her chest.
“Your father is upstairs taking a nap and Susan went over to Mildred Sullivan’s to pick up a pie she baked to welcome you home. Apple. It’s your favorite.”
“Oh.”
Where was Clay? Sophie’s hands formed tight fists at her sides to try to prevent herself from going to a window and peering outside. Just then the front doorbell rang.
Her feet wouldn’t move. She wanted to run to the door, throw it open and fall into his arms. But those arms and strong embrace were not hers any longer, if they ever had been. She had no right to expect anything other than a cordial hello followed by mute discomfort and awkwardness.
The bell rang again.
“Sophie.” Her mother stood on the threshold between the kitchen and den. “Answer the door.”
She did as she was asked, and there stood Clay on the porch. He was so tall and big, it seemed impossible that those wide shoulders would make it through the door. He stole her breath. Her eyes bounced from his face to his chest, not wanting to meet his eyes for fear of what she would find there. Pity? Probably. Arrogance? Always. Concern? Probably not.
“Sophie? Are you going to invite me in?”
She pushed open the outside screen door and Clay stepped into the room. Unbidden, her eyes went to his handsome face. There was no pity. No arrogance. There was concern and something else she couldn’t quite make out. He looked like hell. His eyes were red-rimmed and he had a grayish pallor to his face.
“So, how have you been?”
“Good. Fine. Clay, what are you doing here?”
“Hello, Clay,” her mother called from the kitchen. “How are you?”
“Good, Mrs. Prescott, thanks.”
“Would you like to sit down?” Sophie asked. With the initial shock over, she was finally remembering her manners.
“Actually, is there someplace we can go and talk in private? Outside maybe?”
Sophie didn’t want to be alone with him. But she understood Clay well enough to know he would not leave until he said or did what he’d come all this way to.
“Sure, we can go outside,” she agreed. “I was out there enjoying a beautiful day until someone plopped a helicopter in my backyard, blowing dust up my nose and into my eyes.”
“Sorry about that,” he said as he opened the front door, indicating she should proceed.
The small country lane bordered by shade trees at the end of the meandering driveway seemed as good a place as any to talk. Clay shortened his stride to match hers as they made their way along the cool, shadowy path.
“I screwed up, Sophie. I want you to come back.”
“No.”
“Look, I know I reacted wrong when you told me about the baby. I was still riding the high from being in your arms, from making love to you, when you told me. It took a few seconds for what you said to really soak in. Then, I don’t know, I didn’t know what to say. I can honestly say that was a totally new experience for me.”
“Okay. I get that.”
“And the Carla thing? Somebody hacked my email account. If you received a text or email asking you to come into my office, they hacked yours, too, because I didn’t send it. Carla got a message, supposedly from me, asking her to come by my office because I wanted to get back together with her. Which was funny because we never were an item to begin with. I did not send that email.”
“Okay.”
“Okay? What does that mean exactly?”
“It means that I believe you. It also means that I will absolutely not ruin your life by tying you down to a wife and family. I respect you too much to do that.”
Suddenly he seized her arm and spun her around. Before she could utter a protest, his lips covered hers in a deep kiss that singed all her senses. His tongue entered the cavern of her mouth, filling her, demanding a response. His lips, his taste, were so familiar. The scent of his aftershave... Then he was pulling back, but not far.
“I’m in love with you, Sophie Prescott. I want to marry you. Not because you’re pregnant. Not because I feel a responsibility, although both of those things are true. I want you in my life now and forever. I intended to come here the day you arrived and thought, no—give her a chance to calm down. I knew you were angry and I guess you had a good reason to be. Anyway, I made myself stay away until now. But it almost killed me. I need you in my bed, in my arms and in my life. And I always will.”
The tears welled in her eyes at the sincerity in Clay’s voice. Silently she shook her head. It would be a mistake to accept him, but she’d made plenty of mistakes. What was one more? But he had to know who she was. He had to know she was a criminal. She had to tell Clay about her past, about what she’d done. About how that elderly man had lost his life partly because of her actions. It didn’t matter if he was intoxicated and shouldn’t have been there, as some people had claimed. No one in her group should have been there, either. The bottom line was he had been there and no one had noticed him. And he had died.
Clay was a hard man, as tough as they came. He’d seen a lot in his life. But he’d never taken another person’s life. She turned away from him.
“Sophie, please don’t do this.”
“You don’t know what you’re saying, Clay. You don’t know the kind of person you’re talking to. I’m not the innocent you think I am. When Everest was facing all those false rumors, you ran a check on all the employees who’ve been with you the past two years. You should have gone back five years.”
“What?” He placed his hand on her shoulder and turned her to face him. “What are you talking about?”
“Me. I’m talking about me. If you had gone back five years, you would’ve found my record. Well, maybe not, because I was seventeen and juvenile records are generally sealed.” She looked up into the handsome face now frowning at what she was saying. “I killed a man, Clay. Me and four friends went into an empty barn to experiment with smoking a cigarette. We screwed up, dropped a match and caught the barn on fire. We thought the barn was abandoned. But there was an elderly man asleep on the hay in the back corner. He died.” She shook her head. “Some mother your kid is going to have, huh?”
Clay stood before her shaking his head and she steeled herself for his rejection.
“I caught you off guard again, didn’t I?”
“Sophie, that sounds like something any teen could have done. You were young. It was an accident. You and your friends didn’t know the man was there.”
“Not an excuse.”
“Did you receive any probation?”
“We had to get jobs after school and pay for the owner’s barn. And we get to spend a lifetime remembering what we did. You don’t want someone like me in your life. It fills me with horror at the thought the baby might someday find out.”
“Everyone is entitled to make mistakes, Sophie. Granted, burning down a barn might be a little extreme, but by far it’s not the worst mistake that’s ever been made. You didn’t know the man was passed out in the barn. How could you when he was covered with hay?”
She blinked. More than once. “How did you know about the hay?”
“Your mom. She called. We talked. She was afraid I had found out about this situation and rejected you because of it. She wanted to make sure I had all the facts. I assured her that was absolutely not the case. I’m in love with you, Sophie. I hope you will believe that. You could never do anything to drive me away.”
Then Clay dropped to one knee in front of her, his big hands holding hers. “Marry me, Sophie Prescott. If you love me after all I’ve put you through then marry me. Don’t make me go another day without you.”
The joy she felt could match none other on earth as she bounded into his arms, knocking them both to the ground. Laughing, Clay kissed her lovingly and deeply before helping Sophie to her feet and showing concern that she was okay.